Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

A Vegetarian February

Whether sparked by a book, a film, a conversation or something else entirely, there is a growing sense among Americans that complacency in our diets and purchasing habits is no longer good enough. But making these changes — to eat only local or organic food, or to give up meat forever — can feel overwhelming.

For those looking for a way to test the waters of change before jumping in headfirst, the Web site Veguary is a project aimed at getting people to change their eating habits by reducing their meat consumption for the month of February. “By reducing your meat intake you’ll start eating sustainably, start eating healthfully, and start eating consciously,” the site says.

Andrew Udell, a High School student at The Abraham Joshua Heschel School in Manhattan, who started the project last year, was inspired by a speech given by his rabbi about the ability of individuals to effect change. For Udell, this message translated into thinking about the effects of meat on the environment and health, and how he could make a difference by changing his personal eating habits. Daunted by the idea of changing from carnivore to vegetarian overnight, he decided to start by cutting meat out from his diet for just one month. Udell was later joined by two other students at Heschel, Skyler Siegel and Lizzie Davis and Veguary was born.

On the site, visitors can pledge to be vegetarian, flexitarian, pescatarian, or simply “reductarian” (eating leass meat) for the month of February. By choosing the shortest month of the year and providing options, the Veguary pledge makes committing to change one’s eating habits a feasible action rather than a daunting overhaul. So far over 400 people have pledged to Veguary 2011.

Whether or not you are vegetarian year round, this kind of commitment, made in a Jewish context, can be a powerful way to focus your life through food. Jewish tradition teaches us to be conscious about our food choices, and it is up to us to make these choices with intention and follow through on our decisions.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version